Megan Rapinoe’s Gladwellian Success
10,000 Hours, Meaningful Work, and Community.
By Sarah Gielau | Athletic Training Major at Bethel University (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Megan Rapinoe lined up at the penalty box. It was hard to miss her bright pink hair. Instead of following her routine of going high and to the left, she decided to go low and to the right. Her intent was to see if she could throw off the Netherland’s goalkeeper, who studied Rapinoe’s penalty shots thoroughly before the World Cup Final Game (Vrentas). As she looked up at the fans who painted their bodies in red, white, and blue, and shouted “U.S.A., U.S.A.,” she knew she had to make this shot, not only to put the U.S. Women’s team up 1–0 in the World Cup Final, but to help her fight for equality. The ref blew the whistle, Rapinoe struck the soccer ball, and the net rippled. The announcers yelled “GOOOOAAALLL.”
Megan Rapinoe, U.S. Women’s Soccer midfielder received accolades of the Golden Boot (top goal scorer) and the Golden Ball (most valuable player) for winning the World Cup in 2015 and assisting her team to victory (Dowd). After the World Cup, she became the 2019 Sports Person of the Year. Megan Rapinoe is an outlier. In the book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell defines an outlier as “those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” (267). Megan Rapinoe stands out as an outlier with her bright pink hair, the target on her back as she denied President Trump’s invitation to the White House, and the opportunities she has taken and capitalized on to make a change towards an issue she’s passionate about: Equality. Rapinoe used 10,000 hours of practice, meaningful work, and community to become one of the greatest female soccer players and one of the biggest advocates for equality as she exemplifies Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers theories.
Megan Rapinoe stood in awe, watching her 8-year old brother run up and down the field playing with a soccer ball. She started mimicking him as he became her role model. She tried to match his level of play although she was 5-years younger. The back and forth play of soccer with her brother, fueled her spark in this sport. She idolized her brother. One morning, she woke up to learn her brother struggled with drug/substance abuse. Rapinoe’s brother, at the age of 15, was found in juvenile detention for a drug abuse problem. As she watched her older brother fall in and out of prison, Rapinoe decided to use soccer as a way to escape the drug abuse in rural California (Peoplepill). This narrowed her focus on the sport and helped her get 10,000 hours early on.
According to Gladwell, in order to attain success, you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something. Gladwell observed a professor in psychology, who conducted a study on students who played the violin. They were divided into three groups: The stars (those with innate talent), those who were adequate (those with some innate talent and potential if they practiced) and the group who was unlikely to ever play the violin professionally (those without innate talent and didn’t want to practice) (Gladwell 38). Everyone started off playing around the same age and practiced the same amount of time, but as they reached the age of eight, gaps started to emerge on who was the best in their class. The amateurs over the course of their childhood reached around 2,000 hours, while the professionals increased their practice time every year, and at the age of 20, they reached 10,000 hours.
Rapinoe started playing soccer at the age of three. In high school, she qualified for the under-14 Northern California State Olympic Development Program (ODP) in 1999, and the regional ODP team in 2002 (PeoplePill). She played college ball at the University of Portland and continued her soccer career in Women’s Professional Soccer in 2009–2019. This led to her playing on multiple professional teams, participating in the World Cup, as well as the Olympics in 2012. In The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance, Ericsson comments, “With increased experience and deliberate practice, individuals’ performance in the domain reflects an inseparable combination of practice and innate talent.” Rapinoe has both innate talent combined with practice. A teammate of Rapinoe states, “Megan is another kind of magic. Sure, she scored six times, five of those in elimination rounds. But in her three decades preparing for this stage, she never expected to have to perform while the President of her country taunted her and a nonzero percentage of Americans rooted for her to fail” (Vrentas). Rapinoe has over 30 years of playing soccer under her belt by starting her soccer career at age three and accumulating far over 10,000 hours of practice, led her to become the 2019 Sports Person of the year.
Rapinoe rallied her team and started an equal pay complaint to the Equality Employment Opportunity Commission. The US Women’s Soccer team filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay and denied visiting the White House if they won the World Cup. President Trump taunted them and as a response, the U.S. Women’s National Team scored thirteen goals against Thailand in a stage match (Vrentas). Rapinoe grinned as she led her soccer team to a victory and proved their point about gender discrimination.
While most believe that winning the World Cup would be Rapinoe’s biggest victory, it’s not. Rapinoe argues that she’s now more of an activist than an athlete. Her passion doesn’t stop at soccer, it exceeds into being an activist to help encourage people to take an interest in politics (Dowd). Rapinoe utilizes her soccer platform to showcase her other passions of meaningful work. Gladwell believes in a relationship between effort and reward and that there are three qualities that make work meaningful. These qualities are autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward (149–150). Rapinoe’s work became complex with her involvement of being a recognized female soccer athlete and her passions toward gender discrimination and taking a stand against it. She believed that if she proved a point, like winning the World Cup, it’d give her the opportunity she needed to help solidify her stance even more against the U.S. Soccer Federation. Rapinoe exemplified autonomy as she acted as her own individual. She also acts vulnerable about her beliefs, which most people struggle to do. The occupancy of these qualities made her work become meaningful.
Rapinoe’s biggest success is what she does off the field. Her main job and reward of 2019 was to use her platform to help address inequalities and to be a spokesperson to stand up against all forms of discrimination, especially gender and LGBTQ inequalities. In New York City, Rapinoe outspokenly expresses, “This is my charge to everyone: We have to love more and hate less. Listen more and talk less. It is our responsibility to make this world a better place” (Robbins). As she continues to play soccer and flashes us with her bright pink hair, it’s her way of saying, “We’re equal, but different” (Robbins). Rapinoe’s one voice continuously grows and she advocates for athletes with similar stories who experienced gender discrimination.
In the 2019 World Cup Final, the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team was up 2–0 against the Netherlands. Finally, as the time on the clock hit ninety minutes, the ref blew the final whistle. The United States won the World Cup Final! Once the whistle was blown, Rapinoe could hear ‘Equal Pay’ being chanted and echoing around the stadium (Vrentas). A supportive community goes a long way when fighting for controversial topics, and Rapinoe had millions from high schoolers, family, and political figures supporting her drive for equality, especially equal pay among genders.
Gladwell oversaw an experiment conducted by Lewis Terman, a psychology professor at Stanford University, that explained the difference between A & C grades in students. Out of curiosity, he wanted to find what was missing in students that received a C letter grade compared to those who received A’s and went on to college and had a better chance of being successful. He went through multiple scenarios and found that the C group lacked a community. According to Gladwell, “A community around them that prepared them properly for the world. The C’s were squandered talent. But they didn’t need to be” (112–113). Rapinoe’s community encouraged and promoted her meaningful work, which led her to not only have a successful soccer career, but a career in activism as well.
After Rapinoe made her passion for advocacy known, Michelle Obama recruited Rapinoe to join her voter participation initiative. Obama also had a high school girls’ soccer team in Burlington, Vermont, that staged its own campaign to contribute to Rapinoe’s equal pay fight. There are even little kids dressing up as Rapinoe for Halloween as they were so inspired by her (Vrentas).
It’s evident that the community has had an impact. Rapinoe has an incredible support system with little girls and boys who attend her soccer camps, family members, women and men soccer players, fans, and even political figures worldwide asking if they can endorse her. It seems Rapinoe’s meaningful work and passion towards equality will be unmatched until she accomplishes her goals of eliminating gender discrimination within sports.
In 1999, Megan Rapinoe sat in the stadium of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team played Brazil in the Women’s World Cup Semifinal. As the final whistle blew, she sat there and wondered why female athletes were invisible (Vrentas). Now as she takes the stage in New York City after the 2019 World Cup Parade, a little over 300,000 fans lined the streets (Wabc). On stage, Rapinoe publicly announced her charge to American citizens: “Yes, we play soccer and we play sports and we’re female athletes, but we’re so much more than that. How do you make the people around you better, your family, and your closest friends better? Do better, be better, and take a step to be more” (PBS News 5:14).
So, how do we make our society and ourselves better for growing generations? The Gladwellian ideas of 10,000 hours, meaningful work, and community are ways to help better those around us and ourselves. These three ideas assisted Rapinoe in becoming the 2019 Sports Person of the year, a female athlete icon, and a major advocate for equal rights. This demonstrates how Rapinoe serves as a role model and leader to help restore our world and to support future generations. According to Gladwell, “To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success — the fortunate birth dates and happy accidents of history- with a society that provides opportunities for all” (268). By implementing the Gladwellian ideas and accepting Rapinoe’s charge of loving more and hating less, and pushing one another to help make this world a better place, will transpire us to take an extra step to better ourselves and better those around us.
WORKS CITED
Dowd, Kathy Ehrich, and Rachel E. Greenspan. “Team USA Wins 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final.” Time, Time, 8 July 2019. Web.
Ericsson, K.Anders, et al. “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance.” Psychological Review, vol. 100, no. 3, July 1993, pp. 363–406.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. The Story of Success. Little Brown & Company, 2008.
O’Dowd, Peter, and Serena McMahon. “From Athlete To Activist: Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe’s ‘Wild’ Year.” From Athlete To Activist: Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe’s ‘Wild’ Year | Here & Now, WBUR, 13 Dec. 2019. Web.
“Soccer star Megan Rapinoe’s full remarks at World Cup parade.” PBS NewsHour, 10 July, 2019. Accessed 28 Apr. 2020. Web.
PeoplePill. (n.d.). “Megan Rapinoe: American association soccer player — Biography and Life.” Web.
Robbins, Liz. “‘We Have to Be Better’: Megan Rapinoe and the Year of Victory and Advocacy.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Dec. 2019.
Wabc. “Women’s World Cup Soccer Team Honored with Parade of Champions.” ABC7 New York, 10 July 2019. Web.
Vrentas, Jenny. “Megan Rapinoe: Sports Illustrated’s 2019 Sportsperson of the Year.” Sports Illustrated, 9 Dec. 2019. Web.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Gielau, a senior from Delano, Minnesota, will graduate with an Athletic Training degree. She seeks to be an occupational therapist after attending a master’s program in Iowa. Gielau likes to spend time hanging out with her dog, being able to get in a good workout, and spending summers out on the boat.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
Scott Winter taught me that taking selfies with peers on assignments isn’t so weird after all.
Malcolm Gladwell taught me people don’t become successful based off of their own gifts and innate talents. They come from multiple components like extraordinary opportunities, cultural legacy, 10,000 hours, meaningful work, and community.
Scott Winter taught me how to write anecdotes within a story to make my papers better.
I thought it’d be weird being a senior in a freshmen course, and I found out I was right… until I realized I wasn't the only one!
Writing down specific moments that stand out on a notecard from a reading really helps you remember, prepare, and assists you in writing a paper!
Sports broadcaster Kelly Hinseth taught me to “Just say yes, don’t think about it. You will learn from it.” I will now be attending Occupational Therapy School next fall due to this motto!
I learned how to write a conclusion better and that you don’t have to be cheesy and cliche and repeat your thesis from your introductory paragraph.
Don’t take anything for granted and be grateful for what you do have and get to experience. My senior year will conclude online due to the COVID pandemic. This makes me appreciate the memories already made and to appreciate every moment I do get with friends and loved ones!
